The Fall of Batman Part 3: Waking Up From The American Dream
by Batcomiczone
Summary: The final chapter in the darkest night of Batman's life. This is the end of the story, But is this the end of Batman?
1. Prologue

**_Prologue:_**

I had a dream of my parents. In it i murdered them for my lover.

"We're losing him! Multiple gunshot wounds. Pupils blown. God only knows what else." I was slipping in and out of consciousness again.

"Can we please take off this guys mask so we can-"

I rose up like a zombie in a horror film. They all screamed in terror. "Don't even think about-" And just like that i went right back down.

"He's in shock. Start two large-bore IV's and get him to the ICU stat!"

"He's not responding. This guy is a train wreck!" A truer statement could not have been made. "We're losing him." That was also true.

I had chosen Selina. It felt like a had lost her. I could almost see her crawling on top of me, straddling my lap, and slowly unzipping the front of her suit. "Oh Bruce, the things you do for me." She then pulls out a gun and aims it at me. "You're a real angel, Bruce." The gun goes off and the lights go out.

I wake up in the hospital bed to the sounds of her moaning. The intense sex we had earlier that night, was something i couldn't get out of my head. Her moans of pleasure guide my eyes toward the door where she stands smiling at me. "Bruce." She says playfully as she walks out. I get up and follow her. I'm perfectly intact, not a scratch on me.

It felt like i was moving in slow motion. I chased her down the darkened hallway. She kept saying my name as i followed her.

I then saw myself in the same prison cell she was in. "Think dammit. Think think. Wait! Just Wait!" It's like i see myself in the cell from the outside. "I can figure this out. I can explain this. I can fix it. I can make it better. Think!" Just like the funhouse the word _paranoid_ was written on the cell wall.

I see another cell that i'm in. I'm on my knees crying. The writing on the wall says _insane_. "I killed them all. My parents. My partner. I killed them both. I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'M SORRY!"

The writing on the wall on the next cell said _mad._ "I'm going to catch him. I'm going to make him pay. The one who did this. I'm going to punish him. Make him wish he was never born. I'm going to kill him."

In the next cell i was standing up. Trying to act calm and normal. The writing on the wall said _schizophrenic_. "Funny, for a moment there i forgot who i was. I've been switched. I didn't use to look like this. I thought i was a killer, a mobster, a hero, a patient, i thought... who am i?" This version of me breaks down in tears. "I thought i was in love."

I hear the moans of Selina. "Yes Bruce. Right there. Give it to me baby!" I'm in her bathroom at the funhouse."Oh god, Bruce. Don't stop, keep going!" I walk over and catch a glimpse of us in the shower together. I then find myself right back in the cell. But now the place is on fire. Her name "Selina Kyle" is written on the wall in blood.

I make my way out of the building. My only friend Jim Gordon is leaning against the wall bleeding to death. "Batman! you must... You gotta solve this case Batman. We've been betrayed. You gotta find out who. Solve the case. Promise me. Promise me you'll solve it. Stay true to who you are."

I saw a tape recorder. I of course played it. My voice came through the recording. "The cleaners, Senator Ryan, the court of owls member killings. They were just peripheral noise surrounding a case. Robin's murder was what it was all about. The cost of passion, my courtship of Selina Kyle, my case, my crime. It wasn't about finding the killer. I was it. It was about finding a deserving patsy to pin the blame on." I smash the recorder with my fist.

"Lies!" I stumble away. "Deceptions!"

I see Tim and Selina pointing their guns at each other.

"Bruce she is a killer." Tim pleads.

"He's after us, Bruce. He's one of them."

"Bruce it's your duty!"

Selina chuckles. "Duty? Is that the best you can do?"

They both aim theirs guns at me. "Too late Bruce. You are under arrest for murder."

"I'm doing this for you Bruce. A bullet in the head. I can end the pain." Tim shoots her in the back. And everthing turns to black.

 _ **The Manor, Later that night**_

You come to amidst the wreckage of your own making. The cops have the place surrounded. Do you stay there, eye's squeezed shut, afraid to move, hoping to bleed to death? Or do you crawl out, help your loved ones, make sure the fire doesn't spread, try to fix it?"

"Batman this is the GCPD. It's over. Place your belt of tricks on the ground and come out with your hands up. This is your final warning"

All this time we got the fable of sleeping beauty wrong. I realize this as i hold Selina's body in my arms.

"All units are in position, we are ready to go."

The Prince didn't kiss her to wake her up. No one who's slept for over a hundred years is likely to wake up.

"Okay people get ready. We are about to hit this place."

It was the other way around. He kissed her to wake himself from the nightmare that has brought him there. I press my lips against hers.


	2. Chapter 1

_**Chapter 1: Too Stubborn To Die**_

When i woke up in the hospital i thought it couldn't get any worse. I was wrong. I opened my eyes and everything slid into focus. He was dead. He had to be

In my dream i was intact. That couldn't have been farther from the truth. I had staples over my left eyebrow. My whole body covered in dried up blood and bruises. I looked like hammered shit, felt like it too.

I pulled out the IV and tried to stand up. I collapsed like the cleaners building and fell to the floor. I was hurt. My crime, what i had done, was like a hungry pit behind me. I had to run, get as far away from it as possible. They had my armor laying on top of a chair next to me. The mask was the only thing they left on. They knew i would be very upset if they took it off.

The world was out of joint. I was hallucinating. I had to get away. I heard the voices of all my friends and enemies from earlier tonight. "Bruce, Batman." Who was i? They just kept calling my names over and over as i stumbled my way through the hospital. "Why the fuck am i here anyway?" There was a blind spot in my head, a bullet shaped hole where the answers should be. Call it denial.

I saw a dead body laying on the floor in one of the rooms i passed. It didn't seem right even in a place full of life and death. Then a cleaner commando entered the room. "It's Wayne, i found him he's..." I took him out but he raised the alarm.

I still didn't feel right in the head. The events that lead me here replayed in my head. I was trying to make sense of things. I made my way to an elevator. I took it down.

The elevator doors opened and revealed my good friend Jim Gordon. "You have a lot to answer for you son of a bitch!" Make that known associate. "You're not going anywhere. What happened out there? You did it didn't you. You tried to kill the poor kid."

"No! I can't.. wait. You said i tried to kill him? Is he still..." A bullet ripped through Jim's chest. He stumbled towards the wall and looked at me. "Bullshit."

The commando who shot him tried to shoot at me. I moved to the side of the elevator away from his view. He blindly fired his gun and clipped a tank of gas. The tank blew up killing the shooter and causing the elevator cable's to break and fall down. The emergency breaks kicked in a few floors down. I pried the door open and got out.

This was all my fault. They were after me. You can't run from your past, you'll end up running in circles. Until you fall back down the same hole you were trying to escape from, only the hole's grown deeper.

I made my way to Tim's room. He was in critical condition. It wasn't looking good. He'd be lucky if he survived the night. I had tried to run from it. Edit it out. Tim was at death's door. And i was the one who sent him there.

I saw a couple of pain killers on the table next to him. Normally i don't pop pills i'm not prescribed, but i figured this would be a good time to make an exception. There are things in life you cannot choose. How you feel. I had lain at the bottom of a hole long enough. Too long.

I heard banging on the door behind me. The commandos were after me. I had to get out of the hospital. Hopefully the pain killers were enough to keep me on my feet. I looked through Tim's gear for a clue. I saw a pocket size personal matchbook. It was out of place seeing as Tim never smoked. But then again there seemed to be a lot going on with him that i didn't know. The match book said _Falcony's Vodka_. The name of his new restaurant. This was a big clue. I wasn't sure of what to think of Tim anymore. But i wanted him to make it. I placed my hand on his forehead.

"I'm sorry son. Just stay strong."

At the construction sight i had been ready to give myself in. There would have been no answers. No second chances. Nothing would have been fixed. I had to solve the case on my own. I fought my way through the cleaners, out of the hospital to the raining streets.

Selina was still the answer. I caught glimpses of her out of the corner of my eye. I felt her presence everywhere i went. I was trying to chase her path. Recreate the winding course of the magic bullet in her head. I couldn't find her.

I drove out of the city in the direction she had pointed me, to a man who specialized in answers. Sal Maroni. His manor had it's origins along with the court of owls.

"Mr. Wayne. I've been expecting you." He greeted me sitting in his wheelchair. His health had been on the decline for a long time.

The relationship Maroni and i had developed was complicated as shit to say the least. We had done many favors for each other in the past. We made a deal that i'd help him get elected into office as a senator if he would give me intel on all the mob bosses in the area. Not a bad deal for him seeing as i would be taking out his competition. It was his intel that got me onto Falcony's warehouse and started all of this. I also agreed not to interfere with the Court of Owls affairs, which he was a key member of. He knew who i was under the mask through even more complicated events. But for now he was a man who i had to hope was my ally.

"The only reason why men fight wars, love." He said as I guided him in his chair through his manor.

"The score on Selina Kyle?"

"Next Question." He didn't want to answer any questions on her.

"Fine, why is the court of owls trying to kill me?"

"I am dying, cancer. Power has leaked through my fingers. There was a rebellion. A renegade faction has pushed the society into a civil war. Everyone who resists is assassinated." That explained the mass killing at the apartment complex. "We have been reduced to fighting mob wars."

"Black Mask?"

"Carmine Falcony." I knew the answer before he told me. Falcony had lied. The cleaning company commandos were his men. "Falcony had belonged to the society for many years. Black Mask is going to die in the hands of the court of owls renegade. Then he is coming for me, his one-time mentor."


	3. Chapter 2

_**Chapter 2: On A Crash Course**_

I left Maroni at the door of his panic room. By talking of fate, Falcony had been asking for my blessing to his plan to murder me. I'd been keeping to the back beat, reacting to Falcony's moves, cleaning up after him. No more. I decided to take the fight to him at his restaurant.

I could have done things the smart way. I could have gone in there quietly and done things slowly and cleanly. Maybe Falcony wouldn't have known i was there until it was too late. But i wasn't there for the slow and quiet way. I was there for the quick and violent way.

I burst in through the front door and reined down an ungodly firestorm of anger and vengeance on his men. These guys were in my way. I was there for Falcony so i made them pay. I heard the voice of Vlad The Russian Cowboy come in on the intercom.

"Alert! Alert! An intruder! Who do you think it is? It's that killer chick! It's got to be her. She's coming for the boss. Everybody get ready. Get your guns Alert!"

With no Selina to pick these guys off, i had to be smart and take them out myself. Memories of my previous visit here lurked in the shadows. A musty smell of blood under the coat of new paint. As i made my way through the building, i heard some of the guys talking.

"I can't stop thinking about Black Mask."

"Has he gotten the boss's gift already?"

"Tick tick tick, Boom!" He chuckled. "It's going to blow his head off."

I saw about 12 guys in one room having a good time. The loud blare of the electronic music must have drowned out the gunfire and Vlad's warning. It was some sort of testosterone fest that i walked in on. They were snorting lines of blow off of hookers, they were firing their guns at the wall, and they were doing other things i'd rather not get into. I started the fight by slamming one of the guys clean through a wooden table to get their attention. The ladies ran while the guys attacked me. They met similar fates as their friend.

One of them was able to reach the intercom. "Boss the Bat is here."

"Shit, is the girl with him?" Vlad's voice asked back.

"Oh don't know. I don't see her. But Bats just kicked the shit-" I interrupted him by slamming his skull against the wall.

In the garage of the place i saw it all. Cleaning company vans, the cleaner jumpsuits, illegal firearms, the hard evidence that proved Falcony was behind it all. I was knocked to the ground by a kick to my back. I quickly got up to see the Russian Cowboy. I tried to take him out with a simple combination of kicks and punches but he blocked and landed a counter strike to my jaw.

"Last time i was here you said you didn't know kung fu."

"Forgive me, i lied." He came back at me with a series of strikes.

I blocked them all and went to strike with and elbow. He raised his hand and caught it. He drove me up against the wall and landed a few knees to my rib cage. I replied with a headbutt and a push kick to separate us. I went high with a head kick, but he ducked and swept my leg out from under me. I quickly made it back to my feet but he caught me in a Thai-clinch and started landing knees to my face. I was able to catch one and use it to pick him up off his feet and slam him to the ground. He groaned in pain but still managed to kick me off of him.

Back to our feet we starred each other down. Both planning our next move. Vlad wasn't a scrub, i have to admit it. I thought back on what's already happened to plan ahead. How has he attacked and defended before? Maybe history would repeat itself. When i threw the head kicked, he ducked down and moved his head to the left to sweep my leg. I decided to get him to do that again. I used the same combination i used to set up my head kick. He defended the same way. I then made the motion to go for the kick again, but i had something different in mind. Once i got him to duck, i than went fpr a spinning kick the other way to his head as he ducked down into it. It was a direct hit. He stumbled backwards, and i pursued. I then landed a flying knee that put him to sleep.

I took a second to catch my breath before i made my way to the office to find Carmine and finish this. When i got there, it was empty. If he was here, he had already fled. I looked around for clues. Falcony and Selina were on a crash course. If i found one, the odds are i'd find the other. Carmine was after Black Mask, he left me a map to follow. On his white board he had pictures of the Gotham Rogue's costume i saw in his car. He also had Black Mask's hideout mapped out on the board.

His answering machine had was blinking, i pressed the button. It was only more heartbreak for me.

"Falcony, it's me. If you're there pick up the damn phone. I'm on my way to the construction site now. Look, i'll do it. I'll take care of them both. Just don't hurt Barbra." It was Tim's voice.

The gliding on the mask cracked to reveal the rot underneath. Tim's confession didn't wash away my guilt. It made me feel worse. I had a meeting scheduled with Carmine at Sionis Industries.


	4. Chapter 3

_**Chapter 3: A Mob-War**_

"More cleaners! Waste the bastards!" Black Mask's men fired at the cleaning van as it sped down the street. The driver wasn't used to non-bullet proof glass windshields. He made a sharp turn straight through the garage door into a building. The front of the van was all the way through while the backside blocked off anyone else form coming in. The driver stumbled out and shook his head.

"Fuck." He growled. By now you probably guessed that the driver was me, and the answer is yes. "Dammit Barbra, if i survive this shit you and i are gonna have a talk about locking me out of my car." I growled again.

I was still a couple of blocks away from Sionis Industries, i had to get moving. This used to be a good neighborhood surrounding the place. Not so long ago the Black Mask tags had bloomed everywhere in Gotham. Now they only remained in the worst neighborhoods like this. And right now it was at it's worst. The whole place was a battle zone in a mob war between Falcony's cleaners and Black Mask's mobsters.

Thankfully this worked to my advantage. They were too busy killing each other to really notice me sneaking around. As far as fighting goes, i decided to sit this one out as much as possible. It was smart to save my strength. At least that's what i tell myself when i think about the amount of dead bodies i allowed to be buried that night. It doesn't help me sleep any better though.

I made my way to Black Mask's hideout. As i entered, i heard him whining. "Oh man, why did this have to happen to me? Aww it was so perfect now it's ruined." He saw me walk in. "Aw no! No way."

I was in disbelief at what i was seeing. Black Mask, was wearing the Gotham Rogue's mascot costume, Rogue Riley. A Big yellow and Black cowboy costume. Roman Sionis, one time kingpin of organized crime in Gotham. Now look at him, a punchline to a really bad joke.


	5. Chapter 4

_**Chapter 4: Dearest of all my friends**_

"No Batman. Not you! Why does this keep happening to me?" Black Mask cried.

I had no idea what i was looking at. Was this really Black Mask? A man reduced to this pathetic coward dressed up like a cartoon character? "Batman you gotta help me, there's a frickin bomb in this thing. If i take the helmet off, it blows up. Bye Bye Roman. You're always the fickin good guy, you gotta help me."

"How did this happen?" I asked.

"The Italian prick tricked me." He answered.

"Join the club."

"I can help you get him. I can, i swear. You can get me out of this and i can help you get him." He pleaded.

I took a second to consider. Then i gave him my answer. "You got yourself a deal." Honestly in my situation, without my gear, without Barbra, and without Tim; I needed all the help i could get. That's how desperate i was.

We heard the cleaners bust down the door and enter the building.

"They're coming to kill me!" Roman shrieked. "You gotta protect me. We gotta get out of here. Through the backyard."

I didn't buy Roman's promise to help me. But i was willing to do anything to complicate Falcony's plans. I had Roman stand back and let me take care of the bad guys. Not because i cared about him, but the last thing i needed was a stray bullet setting off that bomb. I took on Roman's home intruders. Disarming them, beating them, it was a second language to me.

"Bats?" Roman asked as he came out from the corner her was hiding it. "Ok, come on this way." Roman was about to piss his pants. He'd end up short-circuiting the bomb and blowing us both up.

We were about to go out the door, but we ran into another complication. "Oh no. Oh fuck." Roman gasped. The head to this frickin costume is too fucking big. I'll set off the bomb before i'll get through." He was about to die from stress. "It's okay, calm down."

"I am calm."

"I was talking to myself." I was about to set off that bomb myself. "Think think think. Ok, we'll head upstairs to my place. We'll get out through there."

We encountered some cleaners on the way up, but they fell just like all their friends before them. When we got up to his place, i was glad i didn't know him better. He had a lot of Gotham Rogue's and Rogue Riley items decorating his place. It looked like a 12 year old's paradise. I gave Roman a disappointed look.

"What? I'm a collector. You know how much this stuff is worth? I tell you, fucking much. Nothing nerdy about it. Lot's of tough guys are into this stuff. Bane was into collecting teddy bears or some shit like that, and he's a tough guy who broke your.." I gave him the stare of death. It shut him up.

"Just wait till i sell my collection online. Just you wait." He mumbled under his breath. It's probably the only way his weak crime circle could make money that's how desperate he was. I found his answering machine. I decided to listen to it while Roman looked for a way out.

"Roman, this is senator Maroni. Look, i told you not to fuck with Falcony and what did you do? The exact opposite of what i say like always. Now you ask for more men? I have my own problems to worry about. You've made your own bed Roman. Now sleep in it."

The next message played the voice i had been dying to hear. "Roman, Carmine Falcony is after you. Knowing him, it will probably be a bomb. I'm only doing this to make it more difficult for him. Don't get any ideas." Selina was coming to help Roman for the same reasons as me. Looks like i was going to find her after all.

"Okay we'll take this elevator down to my garage. I have a van down there. I'll just hop in the back and you'll drive us off. At least we'll get away from all the bad guys."

"That's... Actually a good plan." I admitted.

"I know right?"

"Why the fuck did it take you so long to think about it?"

"Oh, come on bats!" He whined. We made our way to his van. "There it is! Oh there it fucking is, we are getting away. Home free you fucking losers. I can't fucking believe it." I couldn't believe it either. Something didn't feel right. Something was gnawing at me that it couldn't be this easy. But we got in the van and drove off anyway. "Well that was fun, in a fucking terrible, sick, not at all fun way."

Roman needed Selina as much as i did. "We'll try and find Selina Kyle. She can disarm the bomb."

"Are you fuckin crazy? She's just as bad as the Italian prick. She's part of the same fucking crew."

"You're delusional." I barked.

I was desperate enough to look for Selina at the funhouse. "I gotta bad feeling about this." Roman's whining was really pissing me off.

"Bruce Wayne. Dearest of all my friends." Falcony's said as he approached us.

"Who's he calling... You? You're Bruce fuckin Wayne?" A bomb was blowing up in Roman's mind right now.

"Now drop the belt, or the bomb goes." He said holding the detonator in his hand. I had a bomb ticking in my head. And no amount of pain killers could disable it.


	6. Chapter 5

_**Chapter 5: A losing Game**_

Falcony and his men left after they were done with Roman and me. I don't know how Selina came to be there, i can only speculate. It's clear that she was after Falcony. I used to think that she got there after he had left. Otherwise he'd been dead, and she wouldn't have come after me. But that wasn't the truth.

She was looking down the scope of that faithful sniper rifle. She had her sights on Carmine's head before he entered his limo. But She noticed something in his hand, the detonator. He pressed the button of the detonator sending the funhouse up in flames.

"Bruce." She gasped. Selina had given up her kill shot to save me.

She came to get me through the fire. The roles were reversed. She was now the one running through a burning and collapsing building so that I wouldn't die. Selina made her way to a room to turn on the sprinkler's. It helped stop the fire from getting out of control.

She got to the source of the fire. Falcony had terminated Roman Sionis's tragicomic existence with the push of a button. She saw scattered pieces of the Riley Rogue costume all over the place.

"Ouch. Poor guy. Poor bastard." She felt minor pity for the failed criminal mastermind. I was nowhere in sight. She was worried that there wasn't much of me left either.

She found me upstairs were Carmine had left me. Lying in a pool of blood on her floor. "Bruce!" She shrieked rushing over to me.

"Bruce, come on. Time to wake up." She said as she removed my mask and performed CPR.

Death is inevitable. Our fear of death make's us play safe. Blocks out emotion. It's a losing game. Without Passion, you are already dead.


	7. Chapter 6

_**Chapter 6: There Are No Happy Endings**_

It's all a matter of perspective, tied to time and place. Love and friendship, life and death.

Carmine had lead me to Selina's room at gunpoint. "Just missed you at Vodka and at Roman's place. It seems that third times the charm."

"We can't get the other one up here. The head is too big to fit through the door." One of his guys informed him.

"Let Roman stay downstairs. That's where he belongs. I'll get to him in a moment." Falcony said turning his attention back to me. "Ironic isn't it?" he asked

"What is?" I asked back.

"How you fell in love with the killer who worked for the man who got your family killed. Love is blind." Everything is subjective. Choices, answers, good and evil.

"I was the one who told the Court of Owls the Wayne's were a problem and needed to go. It was i who told them to hire Joe Chill to murder them. And it was i who hired the cop to kill him before his court hearing." Everything was sliding into focus. What all of this was about. "Joe Chill was merely a tool in your suffering. I am the grand architect of your pain and misery. However, that always makes me the unintentional creator of Batman. A problem that i will soon correct. You see Bruce, Selina is like me just in the opposite camp. Killing the society members allied with me instead of against me.

"How funny is that?"

"How funny is that after all this time my greatest achievement, killing the Wayne's, has lead to the man that had caused my greatest failures. No more."

Einstein said time is relative to the observer. When you're looking down the barrel of a gun time slows down. Your whole life flashes by, heartbreak and scars. Stay with it and you can live a lifetime in that pulled the trigger, sending a bullet through my cowl and into my head.

In the dream, i was a ghost hovering outside my body. I was at the scene of a crime. "Batman, the commissioner's inside waiting for you. Hope you haven't eaten anything yet. This one's bad." I walked in on a murdered victim with a bullet in the head.

"A crime of passion. This one's yours Batman. You're the only one who can solve it. The killer's looking for an answer. But he's looking for it in the wrong place. He should be looking for it in his own head." In a dream you bounce around from place to place in the middle of all the action. You don't know how you got there, you just go along with it. Now i was at the GCPD building still with Gordon. Only now he was on laying down on an operating table. "The suspect is ready for a line-up." He said coughing up blood. "You should hurry Batman, or you'll miss him."

The doctors swarmed in. "His heart broke. Poor man."

"Give him hope. 6 milligrams. Charge. Clear."

"Go again, three-hundred."

"Charge. Clear."

"Nothing."

"Again, once more. three fifty,

"Charge. Clear."

"Still nothing. Time of death, 2:30 AM."

I barged into the interrogation room. "Drop the gun!" I yelled at the suspect. The suspect was me on the other side of the glass. An evil reflection of myself.

"What are you gonna do about it. We're all guilty of something if you look hard enough. He shot at me and ran off. I chased after him. We were now in the hallways of my old apartment building. "I've been framed!" He yelled.

As i chased him, it got hard to see as a thick fog filled the hallways. The ceiling was gone, revealing the dark red sky.

"Bruce, come on. Time to wake up." I turned around with my fist cocked. It was her, Selina. "That won't help a thing." She said guiding my hand back down. "The bullet in my head brought me to you." She pressed her lips against mine. A bright light took over as i came back to the real world.

"Bruce, come on. Time to wake up." She was beautiful. I hated her for making me feel this way. She helped me out of the building. Now that i was with her, i was reluctant to hear her answers.

"Are you okay?" She asked. I was pretty fucking far from okay. I had a bullet go straight throw my cowl, bounce off my thick skull, causing it to curve around, and graze the side of my head. Not only that, but now after all these years, i learned the truth. After all these years it was Falcony who killed my parents. And it was Falcony that had been behind all of this.

"Falcony was headed to Maroni's manor." I told Selina.

"Don't be stupid. You're in no shape to go anywhere. You'll die."

"I don't care." I needed to finish this if it killed me.

"This isn't your fight Bruce. You can walk away. I'm asking you."

I didn't deserve to walk away. There are no happy endings. "You're coming with me." I told her as we walked over to her car." It was too late. I couldn't trust her. Not before i had seen this through.

"Bruce?" Her voice is soft, her tone caring. I just stare at her. "You're either really stupid or really brave for doing this. But honestly, i don't know if either of us will live to find out which." We share a passionate kiss. In that moment there is no mayhem. There is no Falcony. There is only her. But it's only for this moment.


	8. Chapter 7

_**Chapter 7: Love Hurts**_

Falcony was right. There are no choices. Nothing but a straight line. The allusion comes afterwards when you ask "why me?" and "what if?" When you look back, see the branches, like a pruned bonsai tree, or a forked lightning. If you had done something differently, it wouldn't be you. It would be someone else looking back, asking a different set of questions.

Selina and I got to Maroni's manor. The place was crawling with Falcony's men. We climbed in over the east side wall. Selina went through the window while i tried the simple front door approach. "What now?" She asked me over the coms.

"We make our way through the building, look for Maroni or Falcony."

"Understood. And Bruce?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't even think about dying on me."

I had bullet wounds in my back, chest, and my head. My body was riddled with bruises, burns, and all kinds of other internal injuries. And my only batsuit was torn to hell. No gear, no oracle, no robin. Hell i didn't even have my mask on anymore. It was just me and her. But it was all we had, either of us.

I looked like a mess. With blood running down from the side of my temple. I was a sweaty, bloody, and tired mess. But i had to see this through. I was positive that this just might be my last fight.

I once again took on these mobster goons with my body being my only weapon. This was getting tedious. Disarming them, beating them, repeat. But it was something that i was very good at. You could ask these guys and they'll tell you. Once they wake up in the hospital and get new teeth to replace the ones i knocked out.

I made my way to the surveillance room. I saw Falcony talking to one of Maroni's men. "Vincent, dearest of all my friends. I wouldn't have it any other way." He said patting him on the shoulder. "I'm glad we're together in this."

"Likewise sir. Maroni and the gold are in the panic room. All we need to do is get in."

"There's no rush. It's not like they are going anywhere."

Another one of his men approached. "The explosive's are in place sir."

"We are going to make a beautiful exit." Carmine said as they all walked off.

Maroni's bodyguards had betrayed him and joined Falcony. There was still time. They hadn't gotten him yet. The panic room was at the back of the Manor. Another one of the monitors showed Selina making her way through. She took over behind a door as it opened. One of Maroni's unfaithful bodyguards walked through. "It's Kyle and Wayne. Yes Batman and Catwoman, they are extremely dangerous."

Selina kicked him in the back of his leg and forced him to his knees. She the snapped his neck. "You have no idea." She said to the corpse as she kept on moving. Selina was still on the case. I made my way to her.

We met up at the back of the manor. "Maroni's panic room is just up ahead." I tried the door, it was locked. "Dead end. Dammit."

"Allow me." She said pressing the head of the snake stature next to the door. The door then opened on it's own. "This way."

Selina knew the manor. She was working for Maroni. Falcony had told me the truth.

I needed to confront her about this and get the truth. "Selina, wait. Stop!" This is love.

She hit me over the head with her gun right on my open wound. I let out a groan of pain as i collapsed to my knees. When someone drags you from the wreckage when you had just given in, ready to just lie there and die.

"I told you not to come, Bruce. It's my job to clear up this mess and you're part of it." I was looking down the barrell of a gun once again. This time a gunshot from point blank range would surely kill me.

This is Love. When someone, no matter what the cost, shows you there is hope. A choice, that you can put down your gun.

"See? I can't do it." She said as she drooped her gun to the floor. "You're a real bastard Bruce." This is love.

But love hurts. At that moment Falcony walked into the walkway. He looked like some dime store angel of death as the shadows partly covered him. He aimed his gun and took his shot. A bullet ripped through her back and out her chest.

She lout out a shriek as she collapsed into my arms. "NO!" I yelled as i caught her.

"I was so looking forward to you two killing each other. Oh well, you can't have everything." Falcony said chuckling.

I had been here before, Ground Zero. "B-Bruce." She struggled to say with blood running out of her mouth.

"Selina." I say back softly.

"Bruce...Kill him." She pleads. Her eyes stay open, but i see the light leave them.

"You are making me look incompetent by refusing to die." Falcony said aiming his gun at me.

"STOP!" Maroni shouted as he wheeled in out of the panic room and into the hallway. He looked at me and shook his head. "I am sorry." He turned back to Falcony. "Enough!" He growled.

A bomb went off in my head. The bullet lodged in my brain moved a fatal microscopic distance.


	9. Chapter 8

**_Chapter 8: The Old Familiar Feeling_**

Sal approached Carmine. "The killing has gone too far!" He shouted before he began coughing.

"I have only just begun. It's better to rein in hell, that to serve in heaven."

I just watched this confrontation play out as i held Selina in my arms.

"You flatter yourself." Sal growled as he got out of his chair and charged at Carmine. He pinned him up against the wall with is hands wrapped around his throat.

Carmine stuck his gun against the chest of Sal. "Demented fool." He said, as he pulled the trigger. Sal let out a shout of pain as he fell to the ground. Carmine stood over him "This is your end Sal." He aimed his gun and delivered one last shot to the old mans head.

I felt the rise of that old familiar feeling. I hated it. I got up, charged at him, wrapped my arms around his legs, picked him up, and slamed him hard onto the marble floor. I drove my fist into his face and raised it back in the air to do it again. He pulled out a detonator and pressed the button. I was getting really tired of this dickhead and his bombs. The floor blew out from underneath us and we fell down in to the cellar.

Even through all the dust and debris, everything was clear again. No more ambiguities. No more questions.

As the dust settled i tried to move but was stopped by a searing pain in the side of abdomen. I had a piece of rebar pierced through a body cavity. "You gotta be fucking shitting me with this." I growled as i slowly and painfully pulled it out of my body.

Falcony got up and looked around. He saw me and moved towards me as i struggled to get up.

"No gun when you need one." He complained as he kicked me in my open wound while i was down. I let out a shout of pain as flattened back out. "It's a good thing the women are out of they way. They only complicate things."

This was the end. I had one last score to settle. One last man to break. The man behind my parents death. The man who took everything from me. The man who took my lover. This was the end.

I got up and attacked him. To my surprise he countered and landed a couple good strikes himself.

"You like that Brucie boy?" I didn't expect that at all. "I've been taking martial arts lessons. My Muay Thai is better than my Jiu Jitsu. But i don't no. I kinda like to get close and personal nowadays when i conduct business." I stumbled to my feet and raised my fist. "You still want to keep going. After all the hell you've been through. All the pain, all the loss." His tone turned to pure anger. "Why don't you just fucking die? What are you?"

"I am vengeance. I am the night. I am Batman."

"Oh just shut the fuck up." He said as he charged.

I let the bullet in my brain guide me. It kept me focused. I blocked his first flurry of strikes and counted with a front kick to his knee, sending it pointing the wrong way. He cried and pain as he collapsed.

"Your Muay Thai is just as bad as your Jiu Jitsu."I growled as i mounted him and pounded his face into the ground. Over and over again, repeatedly i beat him. As i ran out of breath i removed myself off of him and sat down near him. He coughed up blood and groaned in pain.

"What happened? I was supposed to be the good guy." We sat there for a second in silence both struggling to breathe. "Bruce, dearest of all my friends. I was supposed to be hero." He said chuckling. Blood continued to pour from his face. "So what now, prison? You know i'll walk."

This was the end. There was no coming back from this. It was all over. There was only one thing left to do to make any of this worth something. One last sacrifice to make sure this was over for good. This was the end.

I placed my hand on his forehead and looked down on him. I looked deep into his soul. His cold, dark, hollow, and empty soul. "Not this time." my tone was blank. I placed my other hand on his jaw and twisted his neck all the way around, killing him. This was the end of Carmine Falcony. This was the end of Batman.

The past is a gaping hole. Your only chance is to turn around and face it. But it's like kissing the lips of your dead love, darkness waiting in the hole of her mouth. I stumbled my way back upstairs. My entire body in agony. Legs shaking underneath me with every painful step. I began crawling towards her body. I hear the police sirens outside. It only makes things worse.

We are willing to suffer, to die for the things we care about. For love, for the right choices. Because of her, i solved the case. My case. All of it. Who i am. I finally get to her. I sit up and cradle her in my arms.

"I'm so sorry Selina." I whisper. Her body is lifeless in my arms. She was dead. The bullet in her head had come to the end of it's slow-motion journey.

I can hear the cops break in. "Stay sharp! Go! Go!"

It is almost morning. Waking up from the american dream.

"Jesus, what the hell went on in here?" One of the cops Shrieked.

"They're all dead!" The other cried.

Now like all my loves, she is mine forever. She has brought me here, to this moment of clarity. Where time slows down and i choose to look back, to see myself. And in that act of seeing. That act of kissing her lips, i am reborn. And so is she.

With a gasp for air, she opens her eyes. My face lights up with hope. For the first time in far too long, i have hope. "It's going to be okay." I tell her.

"Ahg." She moans in pain. Soon her moans turn to chuckles. "Bruce. God i became suck a damsel in distress." She sighs.

"You're alive?" I say in disbelief.

"Nine lives, remember babe?"

"I'm getting you out of here." I say as i pick her up. The pain of all my injuries echos throughout my body. I just ignore it.

"Oh shit! Hey we got a live one here." A cop yells as he enters the room.

"It's Batman! He's alive! Get a medic here now!"

I walked away from them.

"Wait Batman, we need you to talk to us. You can't just leave!" He pleaded.

I turned around and starred him down. "Try and stop me." I growl. Facing away from them, i carry Selina and myself away from them. Away from everything. I leave it all behind. This is the end.

* * *

I had a dream about my parents. They were dead. But it was alright.

 _ **THE END**_ __


End file.
